AEE 287: SOS! Are You in Distress? How to Rescue Your English Phone Conversations

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Do you ever get into trouble during English phone conversations?

This is one of the biggest challenge for English students, especially at work.

Today we will show you how to get out of trouble if you aren’t understanding someone on the phone.

We’ll give you 8 things to do before or during the call to get the help you need.

How to Rescue Your Phone Call:

•  Practice to listening to natives as much as possible in your daily life (podcasts, sitcoms, the news on TV)
• Ask the person to help you:
• “I’m sorry. I’m having trouble understanding you. Would you (be able to ) say that again?”
• “Could you repeat that (for me) please?”
• “Would you mind slowing down a bit? It’s hard to hear you.”
• Ask the person to follow up with a summary of the conversation by email
• See if it’s ok to record the conversation
• Breathe deeply before you get on the call with a native speaker

It’s important not to be ashamed if you can’t understand someone in English on the phone.

Don’t pretend to understand when you don’t.

Use one of our strategies above to save your English conversations on the phone.

What other tactics have you tried to rescue your English conversations?

Share them with us in the comments!

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